


Nothing Like What Was Expected

by Danpikat



Series: Spirits Prompts [3]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-09
Updated: 2013-07-09
Packaged: 2017-12-18 06:13:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 628
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/876550
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Danpikat/pseuds/Danpikat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Another Spirits prompt: “Dave meets Dirk- both are expecting heroic big brother figure larger than life- both are disappointed."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Nothing Like What Was Expected

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Spirit_Kin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spirit_Kin/gifts).



> I hope this is okay~

When you see him, he’s nothing like you expected.

He’s shorter than you were used to.  His face is not the face you’ve been waiting to see.  His shades are the same, but still somehow very different.

He’s not Bro.

Obviously you were not expecting him to be _exactly_ like Bro.  You knew he wouldn’t be the same, but knowing this and seeing it are two completely different things.

When he speaks, his voice is mature, but still too young for your ears.

It’s like when you lose your favorite stuffed animal, and your mom or dad gets you a new one.  But it’s not the same.  You don’t want a new one.  It’s not _yours_.  It’s newer.  It smells funny.  It doesn’t have those thread-bare ears you love.

His is like a new Bro, and you didn’t want a new Bro.

He’s too young, and he won’t know what you are talking about when you mention your fifth birthday when he said he was going to start teaching you what it means to be a Strider.  He won’t remember taking care of you that time you got the flu and it ended up being REALLY BAD.  He’ll hear about how you got the scars from strifing, but he will never _know_ how you got them.  He never taught you anything.  He didn’t raise you.  He is a stranger with a familiar face, here to trick you into thinking _he’s_ back when he’s not.

He is not Bro.

* * *

 

He is nothing like you expected.

He never ran a media empire.  He never saw his world being slowly taken over.  He never battled against the world domination that killed damn near every human on the planet.  His world ended swiftly in the fiery impacts of meteors, and while he’s fighting now, it’s still not enough.

This kid is not Bro.

He is small next to the larger-than-life image you expected to be real.  He is annoying and rambles on and on, even though he should have shut up five minutes before.  He does and says things that don’t make sense in the name of irony.  He just ends up looking like a dork that thinks he’s “so cool.”

You aren’t sure what exactly you expected, but this is not it.  Actually no, you _do_ know what you expected.  You expected Bro, but what you got was a miniature version.  An early model that doesn’t have all the bugs worked out yet.  The technology is not advanced enough, and no matter how much he tries, the parts will never fit just right.  You are left with a Bro-sized void you just realized you actually wanted filled.

You can’t really blame him.  He can’t help not living up to the image you cast on him.  He’s still a kid, and you want to give him the benefit of the doubt, but you also know that you can’t do that.

He is not Bro.

* * *

 

You know he is not Bro, and that you are being unfair.  You were never as good at keeping a straight face as you liked to act like you believed, and he sees right through your façade as you can see through his.  You see expectations that weren’t fulfilled and disappointment in the realization that they never will be.  You see the shadow of the man you could have been – that you were – in another universe.  You wish you could live up to those expectations, to be what he wanted, and it hurts you to know you can’t.

It hurts and the only one who can understand is standing right in front of you, and he can’t do a damn thing because he’s feeling the exact same hurt you are feeling.

It hurts because you are not Bro.


End file.
